Mr Smith Goes to Washington -Trying to catch up on my movie reviews. I watched this over a week ago, but haven't had time to sit down and write a review. I'm amazed at how relevant a 1939 movie is to modern politics. Every politician should be made to watch this before taking office. Jimmy Stewart isn't exactly the worlds greatest actor, but his whole "aw shucks" routine works well for him here. I'm not sure I'd call it a great movie, but I certainly liked it quite a bit. I don't see it's central theme ever not being necessary, so that alone makes it worth a watch.

Sophie's Choice - Man, this was a long one. I'm surprised it took so long to see this, but I suppose the topic is what kept me away. I figured, like Mr. Smith, that I had to see it eventually.The most amazing part of the movie is Meryl Streeps transformation. She was incredible. The accent. The mannerisms. She obviously did her homework, and became this woman. The movie was worth seeing just for her performance. I never did get the romance between Nathan and Sophie. Seems to me that he was simply taking advantage of a under-privileged woman who had nowhere else to go. But he was quite a bit "off" himself, so I guess the pairing kind of worked. Oddly enough. I didn't know what Sophies "choice" actually was before seeing this. I thought it was about having an abortion or something. What ti really was would haunt you for the rest of your life. This movie floored me once again at the depths of depravity the Germans stooped to back then. I truly wonder how any of these men slept at night. The movie certainly dragged in spots, and really could have been edited down to 2 hours without any loss of theme, or characterization. Despite the melancholy the movie brings about, I'm glad I finally saw it. Definitely a good movie, but far from the classic I was expecting.

Rise of the Guardians - This was a bizarre combobble of a movie. Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth fairy, the Sandman, and Jack Frost, as a team of Guardians(super heroes, really) . Facing off against the Boogey man, known as Pitch Black here, to save the world from darkness and despair. How could this possibly work? Well, it actually does, for the most part. We get much more interesting versions of these characters than previously known. Santa(North, here) wielding samurai swords? The Easter Bunny with an Aussie accent busting things up with boomerangs. The Sandman, who doesn't talk, somehow being the most interesting(and powerful?) character. This is wild, creative stuff. Fortunately, the filmmakers took advantage of this premise, and made a fantastic looking movie, with some great scenes. I imagine it works pretty well in 3D. It actually kind of feels like The Avengers Lite. This is not a bad thing. Pitch Black, while seeming familiar, is still one cool baddie. The movie does suffer from far too many cliches, and story predictability, but I still enjoyed it. I wonder about the possibilities for a sequel. Groundhogs with superpowers? Leaping Leprechauns? Turkeys out for revenge? The possibilities demand it!

Melancholia -Right from the start this was one bizarre as hell movie. We have a weird, slow motion opening that is obviously all symbolism for what's to come. Then we transition into some fancy pants wedding reception.Something is going on with the Bride( Claire), and we wonder what's up with her, and her relationship with her new husband. She acts like an out of it drug addict for most of the movie, leaving us wondering how her new husband ever fell in love with her in the first place. I was confused about all the side characters and who was related to whom, and how. I remained confused all the way to the end. Then after this horrible reception, we are suddenly dealing with a rogue planet on a collision course with earth. No one truly knows if it will pass by, or score a direct hit. We deal with the reactions from everyone, good and bad, to this circumstance. All throughout this, Claire continues to act like a strung out druggie, and Michael is nowhere to be found. We never get any explanation for any of it. I believe this whole thing is supposed to be "arty" and open to interpretation. Too bad I found it to be overly long, pretentious, and filled with characters that I cared nothing for. A little backstory might have helped, but we get nothing. It feels like two different movies slammed together, with many of the most important parts spliced out. Not good. P.S. I just don't get the Kirsten Dunst thing. She can be a decent actress, but I've never found her attractive at all. So it's weird when people in the movie keep calling her gorgeous and beautiful. Reminds me of the scene in The Dark Knight when The Joker was talking to Rachel(Maggie Gyllenhaal) and saying how beautiful she is. I love Maggie as an actress, but have never found her to be beautiful. Attractive in a quirky way, yes, but not beautiful.

I agree the movie is much too long and certainly the grim subject matter doesn't really help "enjoyability" in the grand scope of it. But the point was around Dunst's character's clinical depression -- a serious issue to those who have it (and without a doubt, her fiance knew it and tried to help her along with it). She succumbed to ruining her special day because she just couldn't get happy no matter the circumstances. Her wedding was about trying to overcome her depression, which she did at first, but by the end she couldn't shake it (and certainly her crappy family situation didn't help). Meanwhile, her sister Claire[?], has her shit together and is upset that Justine can't deal with hers, especially on her wedding day.

Anyways, come the second half of the plot, everyone is one edge and worried because of a close encounter with a large planet that is threatening to wipe out all existence. Funny enough, the only one really "fit" to deal with it is the most melancholic family member, who's already accustomed to deep, dark, depressing thoughts and knows there is no chance of hope. You see Claire, who's usually more calm and collected, starting to panic and lose it as her sister (the actually ill one) begins to become more at peace with the end. You can see this when Claire was trying to escape from their house to some shelter for safety (iirc) and Kirtsten is just all..."forget it, there's no point". And she was right.

Lars makes films of an acquired taste. While i don't find it particularly good, I do find it ground-breaking since nothing like this film has ever been made, and I do like the added sub-text about [real] depression.

Ah well. At the very least, the last minute won't have you blink for even a second. Because -- wow.

I agree the movie is much too long and certainly the grim subject matter doesn't really help "enjoyability" in the grand scope of it. But the point was around Dunst's character's clinical depression -- a serious issue to those who have it (and without a doubt, her fiance knew it and tried to help her along with it). She succumbed to ruining her special day because she just couldn't get happy no matter the circumstances. Her wedding was about trying to overcome her depression, which she did at first, but by the end she couldn't shake it (and certainly her crappy family situation didn't help). Meanwhile, her sister Claire[?], has her shit together and is upset that Justine can't deal with hers, especially on her wedding day.

Anyways, come the second half of the plot, everyone is one edge and worried because of a close encounter with a large planet that is threatening to wipe out all existence. Funny enough, the only one really "fit" to deal with it is the most melancholic family member, who's already accustomed to deep, dark, depressing thoughts and knows there is no chance of hope. You see Claire, who's usually more calm and collected, starting to panic and lose it as her sister (the actually ill one) begins to become more at peace with the end. You can see this when Claire was trying to escape from their house to some shelter for safety (iirc) and Kirtsten is just all..."forget it, there's no point". And she was right.

Lars makes films of an acquired taste. While i don't find it particularly good, I do find it ground-breaking since nothing like this film has ever been made, and I do like the added sub-text about [real] depression.

Ah well. At the very least, the last minute won't have you blink for even a second. Because -- wow.

Indeed I did miss the point

Code:

I read some reviews after writing my own(I try not to read them before, for fear of influence), and I facepalmed myself for my cluelessness. It's obvious Justine has some form of depression, but it is never really addressed. No one says anything about it, and we get no backstory as to how she got to this point. WHY is she depressed? We don't know. That drives me nuts.There are some who say the planet was pure metaphor for her "crushing" and destructive depression. Calling the thing Melancholia makes this painfully obvious, but did the world really get destroyed or was it just all a visual representation of her own personal journey out of(through?) depression? This thing definitely leaves you with a lot of questions. Yeah, that final visual was pretty darn cool.